Chapter 302: The Hunt.
After all, Reflex could only return to where he was in the past. If the only place Kelvin has been since he acquired the ability is within the barricade, then he wouldn't be able to leave the barricade.
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But things went wrong there again. Kelvin actually teleported out of the barricade into the sky.
He thought he had lost his target, so he went to inspect the position Kelvin was in before. He was doing that when Kelvin reappeared.
Now that Kelvin fought with him and knows his identity, things will be more difficult. This deepened the frown on Icon's face.
He thought to himself, "Since the information I have on him has become outdated, my hunt will become more difficult. This is why I must not give him time to rest."
"I must hound him and bring him down quickly. Then I will take his place and finally take back what belongs to me."
This is his plan. He wants to replace Kelvin as paragon. It was something he couldn't do when Wrath was still around.
No demigod could force Wrath to serve them. Not even he could force her even though he had given up his divine spark to give her life.
But Wrath is no more, so anyone who kills Kelvin can take his place. He doesn't plan to kill Kelvin directly. Instead, he will turn Kelvin into one of his numerous puppets.
Not only will that help him replace Kelvin without any issues, but it is also the one way for him to recover his divine spark and become a demigod.
Unfortunately, that will remain his hope and dream if he can't capture Kelvin. So he rushed to continue the hunt.
He has powerful supers of different kinds, including trackers. So he is not afraid of not finding Kelvin.
And while Kelvin is more terrifying than the other people he has hunted before, Kelvin is just a younger version of himself. He is sure that he can defeat a younger version of himself.
The puppets around him sank back into his body. There were dozens of them. But they entered his body as if he had a large amount of space within his old, frail figure.
Only two puppets remained. One of them was the tracker. It had put a mark on Kelvin earlier, so it can always find him.
This is a kind of tracking method that Kelvin's shape-shifting can't fool. Kelvin can change, but not the mark in him.
As long as the make remains, Icon will be able to find him. Unfortunately, the tracker couldn't find him.
Icon asked himself in genuine confusion, "How did he do that?"
He is confused because Kelvin shouldn't be able to remove the mark on him. He knows everything there is to know about Kelvin right from the moment Wrath found him, so he knows with utmost certainty that Kelvin can't remove such a mark.
But it seemed that he was wrong. Something had changed in Kelvin ever since Wrath died that made him capable of evading the mark.
As Icon was confused about what was going on, the tracker sensed the mark again. The mark had suddenly appeared in its senses.
Icon couldn't understand why the puppet couldn't sense the make before, but he wasn't going to waste time thinking about it. He took back the tracker puppet into his body and used the other puppet to teleport to the location of the mark.
This teleportation wasn't instantaneous. It took a second between the time he activated the ability and arrived in the location of the mark. But by that time, Kelvin was gone.
He had appeared in Kelvin's room in New London. He was standing right beside Kelvin's couch in front of his TV.
He looked around but didn't see Kelvin. However, he wasn't concerned.
He sneered and said, "Let me see where you can run to."
Then he released the tracker puppet and used it to sense the mark.
He expected to find Kelvin immediately, but that's not what happened at all. Not only had Kelvin disappeared, but the puppet had also lost contact with the mark.
The sneer on his face died immediately. He asked himself, "What is going on? Did he lie to Wrath about his abilities? Or did he gain a new ability for hiding?"
It is a fluke for the mark to fail once. If it fails twice, there must be an underlying issue causing the mark to fail.
He suspects that Kelvin has found a way to mask or deceive the mark. But he doesn't know what that method could be since Kelvin didn't have such capabilities a week ago.
As he was wondering what to do next, the puppet sensed the mark again. He wasted no time activating the second puppet and teleporting to the location of the mark.
He didn't put away the tracker puppet before teleporting, so a large distance was created between them when he teleported. This will cause the puppet to begin to crumble since it can't stay too far from him.
If that were to happen, he would be able to recreate the puppet after some time. But the mark will be lost forever.
He would need to meet Kelvin again before he got another mark. But he was willing to risk losing the mark now in order to catch Kelvin quickly.
Unfortunately, despite his willingness to sacrifice, he still came up short of meeting Kelvin. Kelvin had disappeared by the time he teleported over.
He looked around and found himself in one of Kelvin's safe houses. The safe house exploded around him, turning the room into a blast furnace.
He didn't move at all as something like this couldn't threaten him. There was an invisible barrier around his body that shielded him. So he was unscathed within the explosion.
Icon hadn't been harmed physically, but his ego had been hurt a little by the ploy.
He said to the cameras that might be watching him, "Run, little boy. Run for your life. Run because that is the only thing you can do."
Then he produced a new puppet. This puppet was a small, beautiful woman. She had blond hair and a fair complexion.
Her figure was dainty like a doll's. She came up to the camera and touched it. Her figure shrank into the camera and disappeared from the room.
She became one with the surveillance system in the safe house. Then she used the connection that Kelvin uses to monitor the safe house to track his position.
It didn't work. Apparently, Kelvin wasn't currently connected to the system. His position won't be found until he connects with the safe house again.
If it were another person, Icon would be able to catch them this way. But he knew that it was unlikely because Kelvin had the Extraordinary Perception ability.
Kelvin can sense danger, so it will be difficult to catch him like that. So he had to put his hopes on something else.
Icon thought to himself, "What are his plans? What is it that he cares for?"
Things would be easy for him if Kelvin had a family or friends that he could use to pressure Kelvin. Unfortunately, he had been particularly stringent in his requirements for a paragon.
He had wanted someone who couldn't be manipulated with their relationship with others. He had wanted a paragon who had great potential and was willing to do anything to achieve their goal.
His requirements have now come back to bite him. It is because he didn't plan for this.
When he gave Wrath life and was creating the requirements for a paragon, he didn't think he was going to survive the process.
He was already cornered by Raijin and was willing to give up his divine spark for revenge on Raijin. But after he did all of that, he was saved by that god king, which enabled him to live up until this moment.
He had asked why the god king didn't save him before he was at death's door. The god king had said that he couldn't interfere because he was a paragon. It was only until he gave up the ring that the god king had the right to interfere in his affairs.
It was also a good thing for that god king that he was dying. It put him in a state where he had to agree to the deal that was offered to him by the god king.
He couldn't fulfill that deal before because his requirements for the next paragon had already been set in stone. He couldn't become a paragon again after giving it up.
But now that Wrath is no more and he can become a paragon again, his strict requirements for potential and mindset are still putting up roadblocks in his way.
He sighed and said, "I can only use the next best thing then."
Then his figure disappeared as he teleported away. He reappeared in front of Red Dream's farm.